This is very impressive. I can understand people's first-thoughts of "the lazy parent", but I would have loved to have this when I was traveling a lot when my kids were younger.
There are enough competitors to ensure that Apple isn't stifling economic growth. The last thing we need is the government saying what policies any arbitrary company can or cannot have with regard to its products. That is a sure way to prevent economic growth.
Please don't encourage government involvement. SOX did a good job of killing the IPO market. We don't need more of that love.
It would be interesting to see if/how this would change if their environment changed. The brain changes significantly based on its environment, so could the brain mature more quickly if the environment forced it to?
I'm not in any way saying it would, but it would be hard to prove otherwise.
The core of the argument, IMO, is that, by 15, the damage has already been done. On the other hand, if kids were set up in a system that expected them to be self-sufficient by 15 and started towards that at 8, then they would be self-sufficient by 15.
If you look at the last 60-70 years, you see that kids become adults later and later. My grandparents were married and on their own in their late teens (15-17 years old). My parents were in their early 20s. My generation seems to average around the end of college. The current generation (my sisters) are approaching 25 and still not making the transition.
This is worrisome for me, since I've got my own kids coming through that process. I know my 15 year old could succeed, but there is no way the societal infrastructure would let him. I worry more about my other kids who aren't as self-aware as he his.
I can say that I totally agree that a huge part of the problem is that kids are kept in the kid group until, one day, they are just expected to flip the switch and be adults. They aren't learning how to be adults in school, that's for sure.
That, in my mind, is the most annoying thing about it. I don't care what the rules are (within reason), but make sure we know what they are and apply them consistently.
Unfortunately, it isn't a question of should it be legal or not. Anybody with any common sense can see that it should not be illegal, but common sense does not rule our country.
The DMCA makes this illegal. Good thing Homeland Security could jump in and save us here.
The DMCA is one of the worst laws to come out of Washington ever. I don't think there is another law that so completely proves that Washington is beholden to corporate interests far more than people's interests. Somebody on the linked article calls it a corportocracy, and I don't think that is too far off.
That said, it is illegal, it is not surprising that you're going to get busted.
This is interesting. I am currently contracting for a company in California, though, if I read this and grellas' comment correctly, I really am an employee. I wonder if this makes my position less secure or more.
I wholeheartedly agree with swapping ctrl/caps. It also keeps other people from using my machines. :) Linux, Windoze, and Mac all have swapped ctrl keys.
Personally, I use command and option as meta. I don't like Aquamacs, they make it just different enough from standard Emacs to be annoying.
The tech specs of the iPod never said it supported Linux. When you bought an iPod and decided you wanted to sync it with your Linux box, you stepped outside of the support box. That is not Apple's fault, that is your fault.
(I should note, by "you" I mean "Linux fan who bought an iPod", not "you, tdavis" :). I didn't even consider an Apple product when I was running Linux because I knew it would be too much of a pain.)
That's a bogus analogy. Apple is not preventing you from installing any software you want and using the same music you have in iTunes (along with all the meta-data in the music files) to connect to any hardware you want through standard USB/Firewire/Whatever connections.
Apple is preventing people from essentially hacking their software for the benefit of another company.
The only people who feel like Apple is abusing them, though, are a bunch of angsty tech geeks. The vast majority of normal people using Apple products are thrilled that they just work, unlike so much of technology.
I'll second that. It is more feature-rich than simplenote, which I prefer: voice notes, pictures notes, etc. There is also a plugin for Firefox extension for grabbing clips. I (and several of my friends) are very happy customers.
There is no way Java is going anywhere. We can actually hope that Oracle loses some interest in Java, thereby loosening their grip and letting the language evolve.